DEA Bedford Over 30

DEA Soccer reached a historic milestone yesterday at Joppa Hill Field. It is the first time that two DEA teams clinched Division Championships on the same day. First up was the DEA over 30 team Clinching their division with a surprisingly hard fought battle with FC Barley, 2-0. Next, was the DEA Masters team clinching their 3rd straight divisional championship with a 3-0 win over Tewksbury that ended prematurely with some head butting and minor blood shed. So both DEA team will advance to the Semifinals against their southern division counterparts this coming Sunday at the Joppa Hill International Airfield. In the first match DEA would take on Barley. DEA was confident in this match as they clearly dominated Barley in their first meeting earlier this season. The over confidence showed as DEA would hold the ball looking for the perfect shot for much of the first half. The Barley keeper was forced to make save after save to keep this game scoreless. Barley, facing relegation this season unless they could beat DEA, like 20-0, played with some real heart and forced DEA to play more defense than they had planned. However, the DEA defense has been rock solid all season and this game would be no different. Chris Jones, led the defense at sweeper with Dale in front of him and Jon Cloutier and JD on the flanks. The chance of scoring a goal for Barley was also greatly decreased as DEA would have Lucas Hill in net. With this win, Lucas would register his 4th shutout of the season. More amazingly, Hill has not been scored upon in regular play and only twice overall on PK's. DEA as a team has only let up 9 goals all season. Anyway, back to the game. DEA would finally get on the board in the 25th minute as Elvis would find Jerold open in front of the net. Jerold would turn the ball and beat the keeper for DEA's only goal of the first half. DEA would have some good chances, Mike Fiedan would ring the bar, and Willy would blast one off the keeper, but the score would remain 1-0 into the break. The second half saw much of the same, except Barley got a few more chances that were stifled by Lucas. Barley tried very hard to equalize and sparked some urgency in DEA to net the insurance tally. DEA would have its chances, Elvis and Cliney both had good bids and so did an overlapping Jon Cloutier, but the Barley keeper was very good and would not let one past. It would finally come midway through the second half when Jerold would find Willy Mungere open up top. Willy would beat a defender and dribble across the goal mouth. He would then flick the ball away from the diving keeper leaving the goal vacated for the easy tap in. With the two goal cushion, the game was over. DEA knocked the ball around for the remaining minutes and would capture the D2N Championship. Hats off to the classy Barley team, who really came to play and gave DEA a match. With this win, DEA will be moving back up into Division 1 for the 2007 Spring Season. The third half was organized. Flo, who is nursing an ankle injury, had the grill going prior to the final whistle. The hotdogs and yummy croissant sandwiches were on hand and even some bacon triangle bread thingies. Oh yeah, and the magic cooler. A seach party was organized to try an locate Chris Laberge, who uncharacteristally did not show up for the game and lost out on his bid for the Cal Ripken award. The DEA Masters were up for the entertainment of the 3rd half. They would take on Tewksbury in their bid for the D5N Division Championship. A good time was had by all. DEA has home field advantage for the first round of the playoffs that are this Sunday at 9:00 AM at Joppa Hill Field. DEA will take on the runner up of the southern division, The Boston Rovers. This should be a good matchup between two similar quality teams. This game will be followed by the DEA Masters semifinal game with Irish Village at 11:00 AM.